“I’m going to make a statement no matter what. But after that, I’m going to beat up Mark Munoz.”

Lombard said Munoz, who a week ago suffered a brutal knockout loss at the hands of Chris Weidman at UFC on FUEL TV 4, has been running his mouth about him. And that, Lombard said, has rubbed him the wrong way.

“He’s been talking a lot of trash about me,” said Lombard, the former Bellator middleweight champ. “I’m one of those fighters that I don’t like to talk about any fighter. I’m focused on myself. When I see people that do the wrong things, I have to do something about it.”

Lombard, of course, realizes he’s got Boetsch standing in front of him on Saturday in the co-main event. And with a 25-fight unbeaten streak coming in, with his last loss coming nearly six years ago, and the pressure of being the most prominent Bellator fighter to sign with the UFC, Lombard knows he must first win in Calgary before he can officially let Munoz know he wants to dance.

But if he beats Boetsch, and beats him impressively – he’s more than a 3-to-1 favorite – would he really turn down a title shot against Silva?

“One hundred percent. You got it,” he told MMAjunkie.com. “I don’t want to talk about it. I don’t want to talk about him. I just want to fight him. I want to fight him bad.”

But speaking of the task at hand, Lombard said the path to a potential fight with Munoz will be a little easier to tread if he just does his job on Saturday.

Boetsch comes into the fight on a three-fight win streak, including a stunning come-from-behind third-round knockout of Yushin Okami at UFC 144 in February. The former light heavyweight doesn’t have the same kind of title buzz around him as Lombard, Weidman or even Munoz. But his win over Okami proved he can be a formidable foe.

“It’s business as usual,” Lombard said. “My respect to Tim Boetsch. He didn’t walk away from the fight. My respect to him. Saturday night, I will take care of business. … Saturday night, I need to perform, and I need to perform good.

“He’s a strong fighter, a big guy. But no matter. I’m not going to go and say I’m better at this and that. Saturday, we’ll prove who’s best. There’s no point for me to say it. When I look across the cage, I don’t want to shake hands. I want to fight. No shaking hands for me. We’re fighting. I’m taking care of business.”

UFC 149 takes place Saturday at Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary with a main card airing on pay-per-view. Prelims stream on Facebook and air on FX leading into the pay-per-view.

A total of 26 fighters got their chance to shine on Saturday as part of UFC 190 at Rio de Janeiro’s HSBC Arena. Now that UFC 190 is in the books, it’s time to commence MMAjunkie’s “Three Stars” ceremony.

The man known for cranking submissions to the point of injury added eye-gouging to his repertoire. But is the controversy of Rousimar Palhares too essential to his bizarre, awful appeal for his employers to take any meaningful action against him?